- Union Bank Closes Application for N50b Rights Issue
Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc will today close application for its N50 billion rights issue. Application list for the rights issue opened on September 20, 2017 and will close today, Monday October 30.
Union Bank is raising N49.745 billion from existing shareholders through a rights issue of 12.133 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N4.10 per share. The rights issue has been pre-allotted on the basis of five new ordinary shares of 50 kobo each for every seven ordinary shares held as at the close of business on Monday August 21, 2017.
The rights are also tradeable on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) during the offer period, giving shareholders that fully or partly renounced their rights opportunity to trade those shares at profit. Union Bank’s share price opens today at the NSE at N5.72 per share.
The net proceeds of the rights issue will be used to enhance the bank’s regulatory capital requirement, increase working capital and grow in strategic areas that correspond to emerging opportunities in Nigeria, enhance technological platforms through strategic investments in technology and digitalisation and optimise customer experience with investments in customer touch points.
Chief Executive Officer, Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc, Mr. Emeka Emuwa, said the new capital raising was critical to the bank’s short to medium term business objectives as the new equity funds will support the bank’s strategy to accelerate business growth and position it as a leading commercial bank in Nigeria.
“With the commencement of the rights issue subscription, we have now officially entered a new phase of our transformation where we will be focused on accelerating business growth to deliver on our objective of becoming one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions,” Emuwa said.
The bank has kicked off a roadshow to sensitise shareholders with an event in Enugu last week. Shareholders’ fora will also be held in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Abuja later this month.
Chapel Hill Advisory Partners Limited is Lead Issuing House to the offer while FSDH Merchant Bank Limited and Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited are Joint Issuing Houses.
